City Council - Regular Meeting

We're going to call this meeting to order here. Regular meeting of the city council. Today's Monday, April 20th. And we don't I don't see too many members of the public out there, but if anyone is interested in making public comment, please grab a speaker slip, fill it out, hand it to our city clerk, be sure to call on you. If we can get a roll call here. Council member Kundiff here. Council member Garcia. Council member Garcia had some uh family matters to attend to, so we're going to excuse him tonight. Uh, Council Member Molina, I'm here. Mayor Pro Tim Manley here. And Mayor Cervantes

here. For the staff, let the record show that our city manager Cobalt is here. Our city attorney Flower here. City clerk Curtis obviously here. Our finance director Reed is here. Our uh community development director Lucia is not here today. Public works director Shakir is here. Yep.

City engineer Thornton present. And our deputy fire chief Shaw and our sheriff Captain Escoal. Welcome to all of you. Thank you for being here. and our uh city engineer Mike Thornton is going to do us the honors tonight and lead us in the pledge allegiance to the flag of America to the republic which stands one nation and justice for all. Okay. Did we have any communications from the public?

Okay. Records show that we have no communications from the public. So, at this point, we um are going to move on to our approval of the agenda, consent calendar, and full reading of ordinances. Uh before we do so, I'm going to ask staff, are there any changes to the agenda or items that need to be pulled? Uh yes, at uh Mr. Mayor, we are going to add that we we're requesting to add an item related to a sinkhole repair on Avenue L. Um the staff report has been provided along with a resolution um ratifying this as an emergency repair. So, we're going to ask the council to add this uh after the last business item.

Okay. Does everyone have a copy of this emergency item provided by the city? Okay. Um, any objections to adding this to the agenda? All right. Well, I'm going to move to to add to the agenda consideration of a resolution confirming the existence of emergency condition and ratifying emergency repair of a sinkhole on Avenue L at Brady Lane pursuant to section 54954.2B1 2B1 of the government code on the grounds that an emergency situation exists due to the development of a sinkhole on Avenue L at Brady Lane, creating a hazardous roadway condition that threatens the public health, safety, and welfare that require emergency action to prevent further roadway damage and uh restore traffic circulation.

Can I get a second? Second. All in favor? I I Okay, thank you for that. Council, are there any other items you'd like to add or poll this point? No. Okay. Can I get now a motion to uh approve the amended agenda? Make the motion to to um as stated. Second. All favor. Be clear. This this does in include uh approval of the consent calendar and waiver of full reading of ordinances. That is correct. Thank you. So as yes as stated. Okay. Uh council member Molina motion

second. John second. Mayor proin Manley seconds. All in favor? I. All right. That's 4. Thank you all. this point we have our Calama Chamber of Commerce report.

Unless all of Calama in the world can hear you from here. Can you just hit the button so that the microphone so we can get you on the video? Thank you.

Oh, I get to be on video. didn't dress for it. All right. Um the uh chambers's April breakfast was successful with the increase in attendance in attendance. Uh Sky Black from Twin Graphics was a featured speaker presented um a where's Waldo theme. It's quite interesting and focused on small businesses creating advertising that makes him stand out using both traditional and unique methods showcasing the services they provide. Uh for those it was it was quite interesting. and he actually dressed up as Where's Waldo? And then he showed um he had um placards that had plain businesses with the highlighted uh where's Waldo type bill business like who stands out kind of thing. And then he showed um window fronts, you know, that people wondered where what the business was that was inside. And then he showed how you could decorate up your business to explain what you do. So, it's quite interesting. Um, next month, our breakfast speaker will be our mayor, Jeff. Uh, he will we will title the presentation meet the mayor.

All right. I'm not dressing up, though. Don't dress up. We're looking forward to having you there. Um, and then and that is May 12th, 7:30 a.m. The networking begins and then the regular meeting starts at 8. So, if there's anything you want to do on the TV for overhead, um, we can get you hooked up for that. Okay.

Okay. So, we're looking forward. And of course, I try to end that thing at 9:00 a.m., you know, so everybody can go back to do what they normally do during the day. So, uh, good news. Our chamber is back into normal operations. We still don't have a president, but we're in normal operations. Karine, our new assistant, and Kathy, who is assisting her, uh, have compiled an up-to-date contact list of members and are currently focused on renewals and new member acquisitions. Um, current membership is at 92 with 38 renewals this month along with two new members. Uh we have begun the process of enhancements of our website uh to include links to members websites and social media pages. Uh really excited about the improvements and the upcoming interviews linked uh with the social media. We actually have a a young lady that has uh signed on with us to do the social media uh and she's going to u have somebody from the chamber go out and interview the different businesses um and then post those on the social media pages. So really excited about that. Uh chamber is once again standing out as a viable source of exposing local businesses to the surrounding community. the Calam Mesa Chambers annual scholarship awards tee. Uh I place this on here uh in front of some most of you. Uh that is Wednesday May 20th um from 2 to 4 p.m. It's at the Sacred Oak Vineyard and Venue. I know that we used to use the Edward Dean facility um but they changed to Riverside County

Management and they don't uh provide discounts for charitable organizations. So, uh we found one that does. So, it's still on Oakland Road in Cherry Valley. Uh it's $50 tickets. You can buy a table for $450 and there's opportunities for future leader sponsorships and community builder sponsorships. Um there is a QR code there that you can scan with your phone to uh to sign up and register to be a a guest there sponsor. Um, you know, every year I say this to you guys, I wish that we could do $10,000

or more per kid cuz, you know, education has just gotten so out of hand. Uh, so what we do, we do what we can do, right? So, what we earn this year goes to scholarships for next year. Um, last year we got a a sizable donation from one particular business in town. Uh, so that was nice to build upon that. uh scholarship fund. Um it still does not in my eyes meet the needs of our students, our young young adults, but uh your support for that would be greatly appreciated in attendance and uh sponsorship. Um so that's all I have for our chamber. Um anything any questions for us? Uh any of you guys want to be president? Thank you, Tony. Appreciate that.

Welcome. Yep.

Okay. So, brings us to our business items. Item number 10 is the summer meeting schedule and consideration of the holiday closures. And I'm going to turn this over to our city clerk. Thank you. It's that time of year when we bring this to council to see if there are any meetings that they would like to cancel for the summer. Um and also talk about the Christmas and New Year holiday um schedule and then of course the cancellation of our January meeting um first meeting of the year. Um, so last year and I think the year before, um, council approved the closure, excuse me, the cancellation of the first meeting in July and this first meeting in September. And, um, that would be staff's recommendation. Again, if council is good with that, um, of course, we hold our meetings um for public hearings in July, second meeting July, and leave the first meeting of August open in case one of those public hearings has to be continued. So, um, we need to have those for sure, um, kept um, as is. Um and then um we also for the uh Christmas New Year holiday this year Christmas and Christmas Christmas Eve falls on Thursday, Christmas Day on Friday as well as New Year's Eve Thursday New Year's Day Friday. Fridays were closed. So, um those hours um are holiday hours that are banked for the employees, but we would be closed on those two Thursdays for the um for the holiday. So, we've given you two options. Um option number one would be and we have a council meeting that Monday night, the 21st. So, um and those

both meetings in December are very important. So, um we would have that meetings. So, we're suggesting an option one that we stay open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of both weeks. Um, and then Thursdays, have the Thursdays obviously as holidays that we get paid. Um, option number two would be to stay open the first week for those first three days and then close Thursday the 24th um through the UR holiday the next week and then come back on Monday the 4th of January. So, those are the two options we would like you to consider. And then finally, um again to approve the cancellation of the January 4th, 2027 regular city council meeting, making uh the first meeting in January on Tuesday um which is uh because of the Martin Luther King holiday on that Monday. So, with that, I'm I'm happy to answer any questions. Tell me what you'd like to do.

Thank you. that report. I'm gonna open it up for questions, comments for city clerk. Yes, Council Member Molina. Just a a simple question. Um if if the if you were to go with option two, the days the last week of the month where you would be closed the whole week instead of staying open for two days. Uh would the staff have to use their own time for that or do they get paid for that? Yeah, for those three days, the Monday through Wednesday, they would use their own uh leave time to cover those days. Okay. And so is there any is there any proposal from staff in that direction? I'm just curious.

Um I mean our traditional model has been to do that. Actually the last couple of years we've closed down two weeks because of just the way the holidays fell. Um but that's that's uh normal and not just for Cal Mesa. A lot of many cities that do that. They close between the Christmas and New Year's holidays and staff uses their own time on those non-h holiday days. So that's not that is a common practice, not just in Calamsa. Okay. Because I would hate for for us to make a decision that would be a hardship for staff. Um

it's something that a lot of us prepare for because it's been that way for so long. Um and there's plenty of I mean that's what and that's also why we bring it to um to the council now so that the staff has plenty of uh advanced notice to you know um build up their bank to have those that time available. Thank you for asking my questions. And they have two or three different banks to use. they can use a banked holiday um or um any floating or um any vacation time. As a matter of fact, because the the New Year's Day the Christmas Day and New Year's Day holiday falls on Fridays and that's normally a day off, we get bank time anyway, so they could have 20 of their 30 hours covered that way. So, okay. Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, that that was a good question. Any others? Council Makunda. Yeah.

Um I share the same concerns. Just I'm is glad I'm happy to know that we're not going to put anybody out if they didn't have any time. You know, what would they do? But sounds like that's not an issue. So I'm perfectly fine with the option two and all the the suggestions that staff can use for time off and the July 6th, September 7th. I'm fine with all that. And I will say also the only time that sometimes we may run into an issue if someone happens to just begin employment with the city right around that time and they just don't have a bank built up. But we usually try to work with them to accommodate for that as well. Okay. Okay. So, what I'm hearing is uh council is okay with cancelling uh the Monday, July 6th council meeting uh because of its proximity to the 4th of July holiday and also counseling cancelling Tuesday, September 7th meeting because of its proximity to Labor Day. So, cancelling those two. also cancelling the January 4th, 2027 meeting due to its proximity to the the first of the year. And so, um, do we want to take these as two separate, um, motions or do we need a motions, take the cancellations first and then the holiday schedule?

I think the cancellations could be one motion and then the holiday schedule another. Okay. So, can I get a motion to that effect with those three cancellations? I'll make the motion um to um to um omit the the council meetings of the 6th and the 7 September July 6th, September 7th, July 24th, and then um January 4th. I'm sorry. January 4th, I'm sorry. And um option two. Go with option two. Well, we're going to just do the cancellations first. Yep. Okay. Second. All right. All in favor? I

I Okay. So, now to the holiday schedule. We have those two options on the table. U do we have it seems like there's a a staff preference for option two. Does anyone have any objections to that? I'll make a motion for option two for the holiday schedule. All right. And I'll second. Second. All in favor? I. All right. That's 40 on both counts. Thank you for the nice handy uh calendars you included. That was really good visual too. It was for me too. So I keep my mind straight. Okay. So this now item 11 is the state of the city event discussion and this will also be our city clerk.

So good evening mayor and council. This item is being brought to you this evening at the request of council member Kundiff and mayor Cervantes to provide an opportunity for the council to discuss what they would like to see for our 2026 state of the city. Um I'm available to answer any questions and Mr. Phillips is here from the chamber in case you have questions during this discussion time. And um just as a little history um we have a resolution that was adopted in 2013 that sets our state of the cities for the fourth fourth Thursday of September. So um just keep that in back of your mind. Not that we couldn't change it if you wanted to but um that's there. So, I am happy to answer any questions and I turn it over to you guys for discussion.

Okay, I'm going to open the floor for discussion at this point. Anybody want to get the ball rolling? Yeah. So, if you don't mind, the first thing I'd like to bring up is there is on the 4th uh Thursday of September, there's going to be the annual Cal's event that's going to be at Long Beach that week. Okay. And so that is going to be a scheduling conflict potentially for those that want to go. I was I was hoping to get to go to that. That would be a schedule conflict. Yeah, I was intending to make that one this year. So um so just want to bring that up. So I guess if we're open to moving it, you know, we can discuss that and talk.

Yeah. Turn it over to city in um manager or city attorney. We have a we I guess we have an ordinance that kind of pegs it to the 24th.

It's a resolution. Um so you would you you know this it's council resolution. So council resolutions can also be undone. Um we could bring back um a resolution that either just reschedules this particular year and keeps the same cadence on an annual basis just changes this one. Um or we could we could look at doing it a different day. But obviously we want to make sure we count we coordinate not only with the chamber but also there's a lot of coordination because a lot of the state of the cities happen around that time of year. So we don't want to conflict with other um events as well because obviously we try to go to other cities events and they try to come to ours. So we need to be mindful of that too. And so since we've set that everyone kind of set their own dates and that's why they keep it on that cadence. But um so if we to the extent that we would need to reschedule it, we certainly can bring that back for the council, but the council would need to adopt a resolution to that effect. Um and then um we would just have to as part of that, we will try to find an alternative date working with the chamber and the chamber talking with their other chambers to see um when there's going to be so that we don't conflict with those.

Well, thank you for that clarification. Sorry to interrupt council member kind of go ahead. I just wanted to get some clarification on that. So that was the first thing I wanted to get out. The the second thing which is almost more important than the first is asking to be involved in this was meant in no way to diminish what the chamber has done for us. I I don't want it to come across that way. Um I I had the pleasure of going to Bulmont's u city state of the city last year. It was a nice evening event. I know UKIPA does a lunch and several other cities do lunches, but um I thought this year if everyone's agreeable to it, um something along those lines where we would do like an evening um you know 5:00 p.m. 6 p.m. something like that, maybe a half hour wine, cocktail, beer, whatever. Um you know, a business casual type of thing. Um kind of an event. Um not not to go overboard, but to try to showcase some of the businesses within our city. um possibly even using um the Yukipa Calama joint unified school districts JOTC program you know to do our colors uh something like that. Um that was something that Bulmont had done. I thought it was a great thing that they did and they incorporated a lot of the uh youth activities to kind of support their function like culinary and the like. So, um, I thought that was really impressive and I I would like to see us, if possible, do something on a smaller scale, um, that would showcase our city goals and achievements, uh, through some of the businesses that can contribute to this. Um, we've got some great restaurants, you know, we use the House Beastro, uh, we have Happy Mediums, uh, which is they do catering as well. They they do a great job at food that they make. So, I think we've got a couple of good options to keep it within the city, um, to work with them. But um those are just some thoughts that I had as well as possibly um for if we needed to get donations or or additional sponsorships or something like that. Uh if the chamber can let us know so we can start

helping them with that or working towards that um if it's going to require some additional funding. Um so that we could uh you know do our fair share you know to kind of help support this event instead of trying to dump it off on one person you know. So those are just some thoughts that I had. Um that'll our remarks. Thank you, sir. Those are great. Um could I piggy back on his comments? Comments? Yeah. Since Tony's here, um we've had line events at Hosbistro's Oak Valley site, even though it's not in Calama. Their business is, but it's in Oak Valley. It's a very nice um place. Maybe that's a in Oakland.

Oakland in Oakland. Their their restaurant there. It's Hospistro has um their their business. They're a Calamea business, but this they we maybe use their event there. I think it'd be nice. Just a thought.

I appreciate this. I I early, you know, that we're looking at this. I really um it it excites me for that that reason that um I like what you mentioned there. I like the the choice of uh possibly doing something like that up in Oakland. Um our Lions Club used their beer garden for our Christmas party this past December. That's what Lynn is referring to.

But they also have an open area uh outdoors that we can take advantage of because if if you get a lot of people involved in this, it can get crowded. that rooms the the room that we were in. We had uh I think about 65 uh guests and it was pretty tight. So it so saying that I mean it's not like the plantation on the lake where it's wide open and we can expand and expand if we need to. Um but I like the idea of of involving uh additional funding. I like the sponsorships. Uh, I like the fact that you talked about talking about city goals and and so forth and then bringing in the schools and the ROC. All of that is stuff that I have envisioned in the past for our state of the city and it's like this is cool, you know. Um, so yeah, I get it that the third Thursday or the fourth Thursday of the month is going to be a conflict. That won't be an issue for the chamber to to change that. that I I do want you to be aware that the state of the city is one of our major fundraisers. Okay? So, uh, being being a part of that for the chamber needing we we need to to be the host of the event, you know, but work closely with the city as we have in the past, you know, Darlene and and Yza and

and uh others have all, you know, been involved with decorating and and themes and and so forth. So, um yeah, if we have to move the date to a different date, that'd be great. Uh, one of my thoughts when I uh when Darlene um let me know that this was going to be a an issue a topic tonight um is I was thinking I've shared it with YA um Abraham from Ducking Clean uh I know you guys know are familiar with him. He wants to do a duck race as a fundraiser for charities. And um we were talking in our breakfast meeting about it because the uh sky had closed early so we had time to talk. Um next year with the fourth street park with the aqueduct thing that's there, right? If it has water in it, it could be our duck race facility. This year we don't have that. So, uh, the thoughts are tied maybe tie it into the state of the city if we wanted to do like a public type, uh, deal and move it maybe to a Saturday instead of a Thursday if we're going to change the date, right? Make it more available to the public, right? The the community itself. We tried a community event a couple of years ago and I thought it went well, but then we missed the state of the city part of it because all the vendors were still in their, you know, tents. So, there's ways that we can work around it, but yeah, let's do something, you know, maybe change it up a little bit and get a little different, you know. Um, I agree with you guys. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah. You know, Tony, if you don't mind, um, with that, you know, tables that people can pay for, you know, where we can have uh maybe some of our guests or maybe we make VIP table, you know, for guests of the city council or guests of the city or something like that, you know, so um we can try to raise some money additionally that way and Right. And um but that would be something to consider as well. Yeah, we have in the past sold tables. Yeah. Um, you know, like my office pays for a table every year, but uh and I know um CR what is Bill's business? CR Corp. CDC CC Corp. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, um you know, he always buys a table and

Yeah. So, yeah. So, there are some that buy tables. Yeah. But, uh yeah, we always look for the sponsorship part of it. That's one of the things that uh last year because we didn't have the know the the people in place for the knowledge part of it. You know what I mean? Because we Don had left and Arlene had stepped in and she didn't have a clue what to do. And so when we did the state of the city, we were really kind of trying to figure out everything that Don did for the past seven years, right? So

now we're more educated on it and more in tune to get things done. So, I like that we're talking about this today because tomorrow's our board meeting. Perfect. So, sponsorships, we have, you know, Tractor Supply, we've got Stater Brothers here, we've got some big businesses within our city that uh some of them, you know, can get online and just do the application online. I've already been looking at some of that stuff just to see, you know, how what their process is because every little bit helps, right, you know, to to help get us to where we need to be so that it's beneficial for the chamber but also a good event for us and to showcase our city. So that's that's our that's my hope and goal anyways. So

yeah and I mean you know we can always come up with a good venue so beats the you know the criteria of the council and yeah very good great thank you Tony Mayor Pro Tim you have some comments to add just a few. So, I definitely agree with a lot of lot of good ideas. Um, and I think the evening would be much more preferable for myself. I think think we get better turnout for sure. I kind of like some of the past dinners we've had. So, and we could definitely build build on that with some some fresh fresh new ideas. So, I'm on board. So, I have

Yeah. Thank you. I love some of the ideas as well. I think getting our local ROTC involved. Fantastic idea. along those lines, maybe um a member of the public, a local member, maybe a veteran, something to get involved as well, somebody to sing the national anthem, right? Make it really uh really nice, nice event. Um I'd also like to, you know, as long as council would agree with this, I'd like to get all the council members up on stage in some way. maybe just do a welcome, do an intro, in introduce maybe some some guests, play a role in that just so public, everyone there could see who the council is and um doesn't have to be a substantial role necessarily, but just just a small small role even if possible. Um I think it'd be a great way to to get everyone um get everyone involved. As far as location, um I heard hospistro, I think plantation worked out well. Even um Mesa Verde Middle School, we could we could do something there. I I have a small preference to keeping it in the city um rather than it would be great going to O Glenn, but keeping it

still. It is. It is. So, it's a nice connection there. Right. Right. So, I don't know if we need to decide all this tonight. Are we looking for answers tonight? because some of the things we need to decide then are location date. Sounds like we need to shift the date and then whether or not we're going to move it to an evening event. Yeah. So, I think what I was getting and correct me if I'm wrong, uh, Will and Darlene Tony, is that we kind of brainstormed these ideas and it sounds like the chamber's still the primary on this, but we're just kind of funneling a big bag of we wants over to Tony.

So, uh, is that about right? Did I get that right? Yeah, I mean, and it's going to be staff obviously is heavily involved as well. Um, we always have been and so we can certainly take the feedback that we've gotten tonight and incorporate that into our planning. And so it's like you said, we're we're we got to start planning right now. Um, and so if there's any finer details, we may um come back with some of those um to decide. Like for example, if we have to engage somebody, there's a certain cost level that we exceed, we'd have to approve that anyway just because of purchasing policy, right? Um so to the extent that we would have to do that, we would certainly want to come back to the council for that consideration. Um the other thing we could do is um you know, because this is the mayor is the keynote speaker on it anyway. So, um, if the council would would would be okay with this, maybe we could suggest that, um, you know, we could also kind of bounce ideas off of the mayor as well. And, um, because it sounds like, you know, you have a good sense of what the discussion is. So, we may involve you on some of that planning as well, just so that we make sure that we're going in the right direction.

Yeah, that sounds great. Of course, we want we want your voice involved in it as well, up on stage, as well as in the planning process and our chamber as well. Yeah, appreciate everyone's role. I'm good with that. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm happy to to do some remarks, but if we can incorporate other council members into it as well, I'd love to give them opportunity to say a few words. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, I don't I I think for the event, the day of the event, that's fine. I'm talking about more just like the details of going in like how we want the presentation to go and um some of the things we want to highlight. I think that I'd like to probably work with we you and I can work together on the presentation piece of it and then you know if we have elements of like you know other things that we just need feedback on we'll just leazison through through you. That sounds good. Yeah. Okay. Good with that council. Yeah.

Okay. You got enough for now and then. All right. Wonderful. All right. So, now we need to go to 11.5 and I'm going to turn that over to our city manager. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, um I'm going to have Marti come over come up and and kind of present the details on this. But before I turn it over to her, I want to take a moment to frame why this item is before you tonight as an emergency action. So, what occurred on Avenue L was not caused by the city. I want to point that out first and foremost. Based on everything we know, this failure resulted from a combination of a water leak and underlying trench conditions tied to other agencies infrastructure. However, while those agencies have been working through their positions on responsibility, the city has been the one dealing with the real world impacts. So, we've been fielding the calls, responding to residents, and managing a lane closure that directly affects the daily lives of our community. And so when I say we, I mean public works and our frontline staff. Quite frankly, um this has been very frustrating. It's been a very frustrating situation as both uh Mike and Marty can tell you. They've I've I've expressed my frustration to both of them. Obviously, just not they haven't done anything, but I just, you know, they were my sounding boards. Um not

Mike's fault.

Yeah, it's not their fault. uh we have two agencies pointing to each other. Uh in the meantime, the problem is sitting in the middle of our street, right? So, at a certain point, we can't wait for that to get sorted out. So, we have a responsibility to ensure public safety and to reopen that roadway. So, that's why I authorized moving forward with our with the repair and we're asking um we're being and why you're being asked tonight to ratify that action and approve the emergency expenditure of just over $100,000. I do want to be clear on two points also. First, we fully intend to pursue cost recovery from both South Mesa Water Company and Riverside County Flood Control. Um, based on the information we have, this is not a situation responsibility falls on only one party and it's and and Marty can talk to maybe the details on that. Second, I do want to address um South Mesa's characterization that those simply a pinhole leak. That's what they had reported to us when they repaired it. um the volume of water observed at the site does not align with that description in in at least in my opinion. Uh if that amount of water had not been present, this failure may not have occurred. But at the same time, if compaction conditions had been different, the outcome may also have been different. So that's why we're we're going to basically bill them 50/50. Finally, um I do want to be clear um with both the council and the agencies involved that this action should not be interpreted as setting a precedent. The city is step is stepping in here because public safety required it and because the situation stalled. Um this is not something we can or will take on as a routine responsibility moving forward. And so we want to be clear on that. And so that's why we want to aggressively pursue um reimbursement. And then if that if those um if those initial actions are not met with with prompt payment um we will look at other actions as well. So with that I'll turn it over to Marty to walk through some of the

technical details of the failure in the proposed repair.

You're good now.

I'm good now. Okay. Well, good evening, mayor and members of the council. Um, we were notified about this failure about a month ago on March uh 21st. We got a call from RSO that there was a pretty big sinkhole at this location. Um, so staff responded pretty quickly. Um, Yukipa Valley Water District was already out there because they have a sewer line that runs parallel to this storm drain um fairly close to where the storm drains at. So, they were checking um to clear themselves of any responsibility or whatnot. So they came their lines and um they actually started putting in cold mix to help uh stabilize the area. They ran out of their cold mix. So the city ended up utilizing um the rest of our stores of cold mix to um just make it safe until we could figure out what the what the issue was. Um our staff did notice that there was water um water daylighting at the end of the failure as well. Um the following Monday um South Mesa Water Company was out there and confirmed that they had a leak. um they repaired the leak, but they did not take responsibility for the failure that was over uh the storm drain, so they weren't going to uh do any repairs on it. Um they cited a history of settlement issues along the Avenue L uh storm drain. Um just a little history with that. The Avenue L storm drain, it runs from Douglas uh goes west all the way to Cali Mesa Boulevard. Um heads up north till about County Line Road. It discharges into a little basin. Um, and since I believe 20 since 2020, we've had uh three failures along this storm drain that have needed repair. Uh, one was on Calama Boulevard um across from the dairy that the flood control repaired. Um, another one was on Avenue L um between California and Bryant that flood control also repaired. Um, and then another one was on Douglas. Um since the storm drain in this location is less

than 36 in, it's actually even though flood control instal constructed it, um the city is responsible for maintenance of it because anything 36 in and lower city maintenance. So the city actually did the repair on that one. Um for the repair on Douglas, we only needed to go down about 4 feet to achieve compaction to do that repair. Um the repair on Avenue L, they actually had to do the full length of the storm drain just because they could not um achieve compaction and there was so much saturated soil underneath. Um at this location um it is a 66 in storm drain. So we're about Mike it's 15 15 ft down is the storm drain on there. Um so the quote that we got um we asked for a quote for if they need to excavate just up to four feet deep. we think they're going to have to go further. So, we asked um for them to give us a add-on for if they they need to go all the way down. So, that's what you're going to see on the quote here um for the total of um $100,514. Um let's see. Um we did consult with a geotechnical engineer um during this process and they also advise that it's not possible to um conclusively determine who has what responsibility in this but they do believe that both parties do share share responsibility for this failure and yeah that's about it. So if you have any other questions regarding this I can answer them or Mike can help answer them as well.

Thank you Marty. Um, anything else on this or we Okay, council questions.

I just had I just had a comment. I'm I'm glad that we're taking the position we're taking because public safety is critical for us and it that's our responsibility, but I'm glad that we're not u we're looking to to get um our monies refunded. I I think we had to move it. I if anybody's driven there lately, it's a really it's a really a real hazard because cars there are signs that say road closed, but there's only signage around the little sinkhole and people just go around it and then you're, you know, do it's a wonder we haven't had any head-ons there. So, I'm glad that we're doing this because it is a serious matter. It's not being handled well and I'm glad we're taking the position we're taking. Thank you.

I did forget to mention that work is starting tomorrow. It will be a full closure until the work is completed. Good. So, we will be putting out a social media post, too, just advising residents. They will have access to their homes in and out, but um for regular traffic, they'll have to detour. Well, I've seen the trash truck trying to pick up trash and cars are just going around willy-nilly. I mean, obviously in in the in the path of oncoming cars, it's really a dangerous situation. So, thank you.

So, everything you just outlined happened to me on Friday. uh almost went head-on. I was just kind of telling Bill about the the mayor about it just before we started meeting and the guy was telling me I was number one because he thought I was in the wrong, you know, and and I was like apparently he doesn't know how to read English because it said road closed, but uh if he's watching, you know, learn to read English. Um so yeah, I it's good that this is going to be closed. Um some other pertinent questions. the report that you talked about that stated there was a 50-50 um responsibility most likely. So that's something that we're going to be able to use if we need to. Correct. Yeah. Okay.

Used in what way? What do you mean? In the event that South Mesa and the county flood decide they don't want to Yes. I mean certain we're going to start at 50/50. um if they want to if they want to argue about percentages, they can work that out amongst themselves, but they need to we we the only thing that everyone has agreed to is that this is not the city's Yeah. fault and so we should not be out those funds. Again, they they can work out who's responsible for what, but um they should work that out, not us. I guess I was just more concerned with that piece of documentation that supports it's their responsibility. It's not the city's responsibility. We have we have Do we have that in writing?

No, we do not have it in writing. However, but we have had plenty of writing conversations. We do. We've had plenty of conversations. Well, they they will Okay. I I I will say they will have it. They will probably put it in writing once we send the bills. Yeah. And they respond with either a check or a letter saying they're not going to pay it. So, but just one one other thing for council is both agencies are going to have people on site observing the repair work. Yeah, that's fine. To to create a defense is my in my mind to say hey it's not our responsibility because

well that's for them to worry about, right? It's it's what we do know is it's not ours. It's theirs and it's it's a it's unfortunate that we have to come to this where we have to spend the money to fix something that they could have done together. But um Marty, do you know did South Mesa run um cameras down their lines? They haven't provided us any information that shows that they have documentation of the size of the leak. Um not that I'm aware of. Um is that something we can ask them for? I mean, just for staff purposes, so we have that information. You're you're asking did they video inspect their lines? Yeah. Did they did they camera their lines like the uh They did not. This is a one- inch service,

so it's not big enough to really put anything in. And they did they what they basically did is pulled the service from one end of the street to the other side of the street to pulled through the existing service to repair. So when Ukipa Valley wan the camera through their line, how big was that? I'm not sure how big their sewer is right there. Are you aware sewer? Okay. It's a It's a min It's a minimum of 8 in. You can't you usually typically you don't camera water lines cuz they're pressurized and you know but the sewer lines yeah you can pressure test it though right they could pressure test a line to Yeah they can they can do they usually do they for they for leak detection they typically do like sonar like like by sound. Okay

to detect that. All we know is that they they told us when they pulled the line was that it was a pinhole leak. But I mean I'm not an engineer. I have two engineers in front of me. Is my characterization that far off as a non-engineer? Oh, are you concerned that they're saying that they didn't have a leak or Yeah. that they're that they're stating, you know, they had some minor little pinhole leak and

Well, if you there's a picture that was included in this um packet that shows the water coming from. So, you can see where the crew is working. That's where the lateral service line is. Um and then you see the water coming up. It's daylighting at the um the west end of the trench. Yeah. As soon as they repaired their line, the water stopped coming up. So, it was their water that was going through. I I guess my my comment was more about the volume of the water from the time that the leak was detected to the time that it was repaired. Yeah. Mike, maybe am I putting I'm sorry to put you on the spot, but

I think you you are accurately reflecting field conditions. I and my reasoning for asking is not to put our staff on the spot. I'm not trying to do that. I just want to make sure that we have every piece of documentation to support them having to pay for it. You know, that they're not going to turn something around. They meaning South Mesa or county flood to say that it was some sort of negligence on our part somehow.

I don't think anybody's going to be able to argue that um at all and in all of our conversations that has not come up once. I think you know in multiple phone calls when we had conference calls with every with all the parties involved um we made the statement that um that I think everyone can agree that this is not the city's responsibility and we kind of got um we we didn't get any disagreement on that. Let's just put it that way.

Okay, last question. Uh do we anticipate a change order because we're talking about going a little deeper and maybe running into some possible issues. Did they mention anything like that? I think the only change order that we may see is um when they did the uh when flood control did the repair on Avenue L um they ended up um doing slurry back fill instead of doing a regular like class 2 uh base back fill. I'm not sure if that's necessary um or if we would need to do that here. That would most likely be a change order, but that would be the um that would be the most uh the most efficient way to stabilize it. It's like the most foolproof way, but um we hopefully we won't even have to.

Yeah, I guess we really wouldn't know until they get down there, right? Quite frankly. So, okay. All right. Well, thank you so much for that information, Mayor. Bill, since there's been a history of leakage along this this pipe, is it does it do you think it warrants us doing a a bigger study of because we've had we've had failures before. If to anticipate more failures and maybe Well,

and and that's kind of what South Main's argue argument's been because there has been a history. Um, it's typically not leaks necessarily, it's the compaction itself. So, the argument has always been that the compaction that was done at the time of the construction was not sufficient and so it wasn't properly compacted and therefore um that's what has led to failures over time. So, the argument is like, well, if it had been properly compacted, this would not have been an issue. That's the argument that South Mesa would is making. Obviously, um, county flood, it it the the difference here is that county flood on other, uh, failures has stepped up and made those repairs. So, I think maybe you you probably will recall when they had to close Avenue Avenue L between California and Bryant. Um, they closed it down for a couple of weeks to make that repair. So, um, and that was completely 100% funded by county flood. So there's been instances where there has been failures that they have stepped up and this time they're not. Um to me that's a little bit telling but again I don't want to litigate that in in in open session here because again it's for those agencies to figure out on their own. Um and I don't want to speculate one way or another. So that's why we're just starting that's why the most reasonable approach at this point is to started 50/50 and then they can figure out what the split is based on however they want to figure it out.

Okay? because it impacts on our cost for maintaining our streets. So, I don't know. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim. I don't have anything else. Thank you, Monty. I'm sorry if you mentioned this and I I missed it. What was the time frame you said for the repairs? How long is it going to take and when's it going to? So, they're starting tomorrow. They're hoping to be done within two days, but if they have to go all the way down, it may it may take a little bit longer. May take longer. Okay. Thank you for that. I think the most important things are we're not responsible for it and we'll be reimbursed and that sounds like we're in a good position there. So, do we need a motion for the to was what is this? Yeah, there's a recommended action. Yeah.

Okay. Can I get a recommendation? Yeah, we do all four. One motion. You could take all the actions by one motion.

Yeah. I'll make a motion that the city council adopt resolution 2026-13 confirming that the public interest and necessity demanded the immediate expenditure of public funds to repair the sinkhole on Avenue L at Brady Lane waving formal bidding requirements ratify the number two ratify the emergency procurement and the authorization issued by the city manager pursuant to public contract code section 22050 and section 3.15.110 of the Cal Mesa municipal code number three authorized payment to Kelly's Underground Construction Incorporated in the amount of 100,000 100,514 including authorization to utilize the optional deep excavation team uh item if necessary and four authorized staff to pursue cost recovery from South Mesa Water Company and Riverside County Flood Control and Water Conservation District.

Can I get a second? Second. All in favor? I I that's 4 Z passes.

Okay. This point we have uh mayor and council members reporting on county and regional meetings and conferences. So begin with council member Molina. Thank you. Um I have attended I I missed the last council meeting. I I appreciate um being excused. I was I was I had a bad really bad cold. Um, I will I have attended some county regional meetings and I will provide summaries as soon as I have them. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Council Council Makundiff.

Thank you, mayor. I have not attended any meetings since our last council meeting. I did get an update um from the SCAG that I mentioned last uh meeting. So, um I will forward that email to all the council so you have all that information. Uh, on a different note, I wanted to um just bring to notice maybe some of you that have driven on Singleton Road um going up to Bryant uh may have seen the giant American flag up on the water tower that belongs to Yukipa Valley Water. And I just wanted to point that out and say that uh kudos to Yukypa Valley Water. Um thank I want to thank them very much for their patriotism and for displaying such a large flag lit and uh just taking pride in our country in doing that. So, uh, I thought that was worth noting. That's all I have.

I apologize. I forgot something.

Okay. At the last council meeting that I attended, um, I had requested consensus for from the council on me attending representing Calamea in Sacramento for um, advocacy days, which is happens to be this week. I am not able to go. I didn't I didn't register. I didn't spend money because I always try to save a dollar, especially going to Sacramento. But I have a family court hearing on Thursday that prevents me from going to Cal City. So I will not be going. Although I feel confident that our legislators are clearly aware of of where we stand, what what projects we need. I know we're we're applying for a TEP grant. So um just want to let you all know that I am not going um and um sorry about that.

Yeah. No. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that, Mayor Prom.

Thank you, Mayor. uh April 13th attended the finance ad hoc meeting with with the mayor and we just covered the uh the budget for the next f fiscal year. Got a sneak pe sneak peek at it. Um also the pickle ball courts over at Mountain View Park. So it is open. They're open if you didn't know. They are so park is partially open. So people have been out there. If you haven't checked them out, swing by, check them out. People are showing up I think day and night over there. uh playing playing a little pickle ball and we have our soft opening and now rescheduled uh for May 2nd. So there are some spots that they said it opens in the morning. So uh so they rescheduled it some they still have some spots filled but there'll be some openings where you can get online tomorrow for the clinic. So that'll be the part of the soft opening will be the the free clinic. So you can get online and jump in there if you want to begin or jump into the beginners clinic for that for that Saturday. And it's beautiful. It's a beautiful park. So I'm looking forward to getting out there. And that's all I have.

Thank you, sir. I did see the giant flag in the water tower. I was pleasantly Yeah, it's right outside our neighborhood. And a big wind came through and knocked it down. Did you see that? And I was so disappointed. I'm like, man, that didn't last long. And then they put it right back up. And I was like, "Yes, right away it was up there." So, I'll give kudos to my son because he was the one that fixed it to put it back up.

Oh, good. Shout out to the shout out to him. Yeah. Very, very good. Happy to see that there. Um, so as Mayor Pro Tim said, I attended a finance committee meeting with the city to get a sneak peek of the the budget, which you all looks really well, really well done, by the way. Got some really cool stuff to talk about and discuss in the very near future, right next Monday. Yeah. So, we'll be talking about that really soon. Um, I also went to the the pickle ball courts, but got my uh my family in the car, went over there, played a played a few rounds, beautiful park, really happy with the courts. They look really nice. Saw other families there, other people hanging out there playing. My son did have one suggestion though, one suggestion. So, maybe this is Motti or something. Okay. So, in between, you know, you have the the two courts on one side and then the two courts on the other. And separating the two courts is like a three-foot fence. And when we were playing several times, we hit the ball over into the other court and we had to hop over the the fence separating them. And so having a little pass through between those would be would be really nice. So, just to just

We just want to make sure you guys are getting in your exercise. Okay. Okay. Okay. Oh. Um, so the reason I'm laughing is because I went over there to take a look uh at lunch one day and I made that exact observation. So I'm like, "This is great. I understand why it's here, but I think we need to have a gate so that people cuz you have to go out and then Yeah. Several times we hit the ball over and we were hopping over the fence to cuz I know I'd be losing my ball over there all the time if I were playing." Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was it was

But other than that, it's it's great. It's just small minor recommendation if we if we we can eventually. But great. Um I think that concludes my report and I will now hand it over to the city manager for his report.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um couple things. The city has released a notice of intent to approve a negative declaration regarding an annexation along Cal uh Cherry Valley Boulevard. So this is an environmental document necessary to process an application by the owners of the Cherry Valley Boulevard warehouse to warehouses to annex into the city. The annex a student would also include property south of Cherry Valley Boulevard from I 10 on the west to the Bulmont city limit on the east. Um the additional area is necessary to prevent an unincorporated county island. So uh LAFCO policy prohibits that. So the notice period on that will run until Monday uh May 18th. Um a quick update on our federal earmark request. So council me or mayor um Cervantes and Mayor Pro Tim Manley met with uh coun or congressman Calbertt last month and we had proposed a federal earmark request for $4 million for the revitalization of Calama Boulevard. And so I checked his uh website for his fiscal year 27 earmark requests and it appears our project is among those he is requesting funding in the federal 27 budget. So this project would include repaving of Calama Boulevard, street level beautifification, security enhancements, including additional lighting and surveillance and other um items as as the budget would allow. Um it will it will be a while until we know whether eararks will be ultimately end up in the budget. For example, we just found out about five our $5 million um request from the fiscal year 26. We only found out about that one recently. So, it'll probably be they always, you know, the the federal um year starts October 1st, but I don't think they have approved appropriations before that date in the last 25 years. So, I wouldn't expect this year to be any different. Um

so but we do have some assurance that if federal earmarks are included in the federal budget um we will receive that funding because um Congressman Calvert has been very has a very high success rate when it comes to that. So uh with that we were kind of holding off on doing any design work or or expending any time on that until we knew that those funds would be secured. So now that at least we are anticipating they might be there, we're going to start doing some design work um in that regard. Finally, um, Assembly Bill 2753, our thanks to our city attorney for pointing this out to me, um, was introduced by Assembly Member Esmeralda Sora of Merced. And it's a bill currently moving through the state legislature that would prohibit individuals who are required to be registered as sex offenders from running or holding elected office at both the state and local level. So under California law, uh there is no such prohibition, meaning a registered sex offender can legally run for city council so long as they meet the minimum meet the standard eligibility requirements. So existing disqualifications are generally emitted limited to certain public corruption related felonies. So this bill is intended to close what legislators see as a gap in the law. So this directly relates to the question raised by council member Kundiff um a couple meetings ago. So at this time, cities do not have the authority to impose their own restrictions on candidate eligibility beyond what is provided in state law. So if a AB2753 is ultimately adopted, it would create a uniform statewide prohibition and resolve that that issue. Until then, the current legal framework um remains in place. So unless there is object objection from the city council or we'd like to bring it back for future discussion, I plan on writing a letter of support on behalf of the city for AB 2753. And that concludes my um my report.

Thank you, sir. Now, you mentioned um the 4 million for the Calama Boulevard. Yes. Made the short list for Congressman Calbert. Did our Cherry Valley request also So that is not an earmark. Um that is a build grant application that's still working its way through the pro process. Um we're probably right in that in that um in that window where we need to start doing a little bit more lobbying. So we're going to be working with our federal um uh lobbyists to do that. Okay. Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you for that. All right. At this point um we have some close session items and so I'm going to hand it over to our city attorney to make those announcements. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, city council will now uh recess to close session to discuss three items. They're listed as item 12 uh on your agenda. The items are as follows. Conference with labor negotiators pursuant to uh uh section 54957.6 of the Brown Act, city negotiator uh city manager and the deputy city manager. Uh the represented employees are the Calama Professional Firefighters Association. Item B is conference with labor negotiators. uh same Brown Act rules um negotiator the city manager and the employee groups are all non-represented city employees excluding the city manager and finally uh C public employee me employee performance evaluation uh pursuant to section 54957 of the Brown Act and the employee under evaluation is the city manager. Thank you sir. And we will now retire to close session and thank you all for coming.